Delaware state officials have referred a fraudulent filing for a BlackRock XRP fund to the state's Department of Justice, Bloomberg reports.
This move follows the appearance of false paperwork on Delaware's official website, which led to a temporary surge in the cryptocurrency's value.
BlackRock debunks the ETF hoax
The bogus filing, which indicated the creation of a BlackRock-managed Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) based on XRP, a popular digital currency, was uploaded to the Division of Corporations website.
This site is known for listing funds incorporated in the state, including previous legitimate applications from BlackRock.
The fraudulent scheme was relatively simple since it involved just a couple of documents and a modest $500 fee. However, it was capable of pumping the XRP price to the $0.75 level.
The revelation that the BlackRock XRP ETF news was a hoax predictably made XRP erase all of its gains. As reported by U.Today, XRP's price plummeted to $0.61, a significant 12% drop.
BlackRock has since confirmed that they have not filed an iShares XRP Trust, as previously rumored.
"Borderline cult mentality"
The recent BlackRock filing hoax has drawn sharp criticism from financial industry experts toward the XRP community for their steadfast belief in the false news.
James Seyffart, a prominent ETF analyst, pointed to the fact that some XRP followers were still convinced about the validity of the BlackRock filing despite clear evidence debunking it.
Seyffart described this attitude as a "borderline cult mentality" among this segment of the cryptocurrency community.
However, some community members noted that this was only the behavior of some loud XRP maximalist.